Free software is based on the idea of cooperation. Instead of a competition between companies, free software strengh comes from the ability to re-use work done by anyone in other programs. When someone writes a piece of free software, you can re-use his work in your own program, instead of re-doing his work again.
Many free programs are developped by worlwide communities, with thousands of volunteers working on it. These people write these programs because they need them, but at the same time they make it possible for everyone to use their work. This way of developping software is similar to scientific research. Note that companies also work on free software, but their work is still available to everyone.
Free software means that you are free to use the program for whatever you want, as long as you want, and for free (as in "free beer"). You can install it on an infinite number of computers, you can make a copy of it and give it to your friends.
With free software, the user has the same freedom as the author's. He can see how the software works to learn or to check if he can trust the software. He can re-use the code in his own programs, he may also be able to contribute in the projet (as many free software projects are open projects). He is also allowed to "fork" the project, meaning to create a new program with the existing one as a starting basis. That is all these properties that made this cooperation model possible.
Because free software can be freely redistributed, it is then free as in free beer (you can get it for $0). There are no "trial", "professional", "third world", "premium" or whatever versions. Anyone can use free software that is normally used on servers in big companies without being as rich as them. Proprietary software often have cheap or free (as in free beer) versions for home use, and very expansive versions for companies. Free software can be used by anyone for any purpose for free.
It is also important to note that users have the same rights as developers, because they can read the source code and modify the program. Users are even often encouraged to report bugs they find to developers and may even propose fixes.
Now you can read: Switch to Free Software.
$Id: why.cgi 191 2008-04-17 17:33:21Z almacha $
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